A TEXTILE company is taking legal action in a bid to keep its contract for army camouflage uniforms.

Around 35 jobs at Blackburn firm Cookson and Clegg - which has been providing military uniforms for more than 25 years - are under threat because of a Ministry of Defence decision to axe its contract.

It has awarded a much larger £50million contract to Irish company Cooneen, Watts and Stone Ltd, rather than subcontract to Cookson and Clegg and its Chorley parent company Pincroft Dyeing and Printing Company.

It is thought that Cooneen, Watts and Stone, Ltd - formed in February specifically to win the tender - plans to outsource the contract to a state-owned Chinese firm with no track record and which is still to be inspected by the MOD.

Now Cookson and Clegg and Pincroft, which employs around 200 people, have applied for a judicial review in the High Court to contest the tender award.

And Blackburn MP and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his Chorley Labour colleague Lindsay Hoyle are lobbying Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to think again.

The Foreign Secretary said: "The Ministry of Defence rolled up the uniform contracts into one as they are perfectly entitled to do.

"But Lindsay and I are very concerned at the implications for the firms in East Lancashire and have asked Geoff Hoon for the award of the contract to be reviewed."

Mr Hoyle said: "We want to check if what happened was legal and if it was in the best interests of the MOD, the armed forces and taxpayers.

"I don't think that having our armed combat uniforms outsourced from China is acceptable both legally and morally."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Cooneen, Watts and Stone offered the best value for money and prospect of a partnership arrangement for the future.

"This was a much larger contract than previously rolling up several smaller ones. The bid met all our criteria on quality and security of supply."

Managing Director of Cookson and Clegg, Richard Hampson, and Managing Director of Pincroft, Mark Howarth both declined to comment.

Cookson & Clegg has been based in Blackburn since 1860. While the company has maintained some production at its Shadsworth base, much of their production comes from their Romanian factory, which opened in 1994. They manufacture around a million garments a year.